NEW DELHI, (from Agency reports) – Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Tuesday (11 September 2012) said it was “sad” that Indians were getting involved in corrupt activities despite being ‘highly religious-minded’.

“I recently went to Ladakh and someone told me for example if government gives them Rs 100, only Rs 20 reach them. Rest 80 per cent disappears,” Dalai Lama said during a function at Ramakrishna Mission in New Delhi.

“This is very sad. Indians are religious-minded people and they fear god,” he said.

Dalai Lama said it was a ‘big contradiction’ that Indian people “pray in the morning” and then engage themselves in corrupt activities throughout the day.

“It is a big contradiction. On one hand they pray in the morning and through the day they do corruption. This is not done,” he said.

“When you deny god and deny spirituality then at least one can understand,” Dalai Lama said.

The spiritual leader made the comments at a time when the Congress-United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is regularly earning the flak of opposition parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the coal block allocation scam.

The coal report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed finger at the loss-making coal block allocations when the portfolio was held by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The report by the CAG said 25 private companies received benefits of around Rs 1.86 lakh crore through of coal block allocations in various states.

Indian Parliament could not function the entire monsoon session over the demand of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s resignation and cancellation of licenses of coal blocks and an independent probe into the coal scam.